


When the Streak Ended

by tempeck16



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, Self-Worth Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 02:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5440838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempeck16/pseuds/tempeck16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the streak ended, everyone assumed that Kaner would not react well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Streak Ended

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place right after the Avs game when the streak ended. Suffice to say they are both single here, and in my mind they are basically the same people that they were in 2010 with the obvious changes that have happened over the years.

When the streak ended, everyone assumed that Kaner would not react well.

Jonny thought there might be yelling.

Seabs thought there might be tears.

Duncs thought there might be throwing of gear or throwing of bodies, depending on who got in Kaner’s way.

The rest of the guys were stuck between waiting for the explosion with baited breath, and feeling bad that the streak that Kaner worked so hard to maintain was over. It had been a good run, a great run if you asked anyone outside of the Blackhawk’s locker room, but inside, the guys had just as much fun if not more than Kaner did as they all worked toward the goal of surpassing legends and putting Pat’s name up there with the greats.

No one, absolutely no one, was expecting silence.

It was the quietist the locker room had ever been, the L that they had just acquired notwithstanding. Everyone was kind of tip-toeing around like there was a death in the family as soon as the game had ended. There was a standing O, everyone on their feet congratulating Kaner and the Hawks on a spectacular run not only surpassing Hull, but also making it into the elite few people to put their name somewhere close to Gretzky.

Jonny was amongst the silent ensemble gathered in the locker room, steadfastly ignoring Duncs, Seabs, and Hossa’s meaningful looks that said Kaner needed someone to lean on right now. He was the Captain, it was his duty to be that person, but even more than that, he was Kaner’s best friend on the team, but even more than that, it was Kaner and Tazer, that’s just how they worked. Shitty things happened, even shitty expected things, and one of them was always there by the other making sure that the hurt one didn’t get too far into his own head.

The thing was, Jonny didn’t know what to say, because he didn’t know how Pat was doing. Kaner gave off absolutely no sign of being affected by the game at all. Sure he was down, they lost, but he personally lost a part of himself that had worked so incredibly hard for the past two months to be the best. Jonny didn’t know how to console him, didn’t know what he was going to say to the blonde, didn’t know what he was going to say to the press.

 _The press._ Jonny thought, seconds before the doors to the locker room slammed open, and the same amount of press that mobbed them when they won the Stanley Cup came rushing in, all going to several players, but mostly settling on Kaner.

This was clearly going to end well.

Jonny made to stand up, to go over and settle down next to Kaner, make sure that the press wasn’t too mouthy, wasn’t too pushy, didn’t push Kaner over the edge. Because god knows what that kid needed was another Deadspin article, this time saying that he couldn’t handle himself after a disappointing game, or that he was being a wimp because he lost his streak or something like that.

Tazer would stop them from… well he couldn’t actually stop them from asking anything, but he could be there. He could stand next to Kaner in silent support, maybe take a few of the shots and roll with a few of the punches. He was the Captain and Pat was probably his best friend on the team too, so he wanted to, needed to go over and help him out.

He was the Captain though, and that thought always seemed to escape him when the press was around. As soon as Jonny got to his feet and took a step toward Kaner’s stall, he was also rather mobbed by the press with a lot of invasive and leading questions that Jonny still didn’t have an answer for.

“Jonny, were you expecting The Streak to come to a close whilst battling a team that held the worst record in your division?” Someone shouted out, and Jonny wished they would be quieter, wished they had some semblance of respect.

He also wished they hadn’t capitalized The Streak; that just made it even more of a thing, a physical situation that they all had to live through, that Pat had to live through.

 _Just get it over with_. “You’re never really expecting to lose, even after you’ve gone out and given it your all,” Jonny started and he could tell this was going to be a speech with the caliber of playoff loss. “You can’t determine the quality of the game by the loss of a title, and you also can’t expect to beat a team that has some kind of record. It’s all determined out there on the ice.” There he said it without even mentioning The Streak by name, or even mentioning Patrick and how much it must suck for him right now.

“And have you talked to Kane yet, gotten his outlook on how the game went, why his Streak ended?” An earnest guy with glasses and fierce determination asked shoving his recorder even closer to Jonny’s face.

_Goddammit_

“No we… No matter what, Kaner knows that…” He stopped. What did Kaner know? Jonny hadn’t gotten to do more than bump into Kaner’s side when there were only ten seconds left in the game, but that wasn’t enough. They were Tazer and Kaner, Kane and Toews, they were The Odd couple of Chicago; they worked differently, that’s how they worked. Jonny had no idea what to say about this because he had no idea what to say to Kaner.

Jonny glanced up and around the room. Everyone was talking to someone; everyone was probably giving the same shit answers that Jonny was trying to stumble through. Whether they were talking about the loss or about The Streak, everyone was saying something. Just as Jonny figured he should probably come up with something that sounded neutral, finish his sentence and go on with whatever came next; he heard something so familiar he almost forgot what it was.

A laugh.

Kaner’s laugh.

Patrick Kane chuckling at something someone said. Patrick Kane not freaking out, or stumbling through his own interview, or quietly trying to hold back tears.

Jonny’s head snapped to Pat’s stall and saw an honest to god smile on Kaner’s face. Not a press smile, or an awards smile, this was the dimply, insanely cute, ‘I can’t help it’ smile that Kaner got when he was honestly having a good time.

Jonny stared with raised eyebrows and wide eyes as Kaner animatedly talked about whatever it was that he was talking about. He didn’t look sad, he didn’t look angry; he didn’t look like the world just ended. Kaner glanced over like he knew he was being watched and his smile slipped a little as he caught Jonny’s stare. It was replaced with a question, one that Jonny knew the answer to, and that made him smile a bit in response.

Jonny nodded, more to himself then to Kaner or anyone else.

“Kaner knows that no matter what, we had just as much fun, if not more helping him along with The Streak, and we all knew that it would have to end eventually.” Jonny took a breath knowing he had more to say, wanting to say more. “Kaner’s a professional, and we will all take the loss for what it is, and work harder for the next win. The Avs had good D tonight, we had a few tries that could have gone better, let some shots get away from us, but now we know what to fix, what to work on.”

The press nodded and Jonny felt like he did something right. There were a few more ancillary questions about Crow and the All-Star games, but nothing more about the streak.

They’d passed the streak.

Sooner rather than later the press was filtering out, and regular noise was starting to fill up the room. Jonny looked around as he started to take off his gear, and to absolutely no surprise it was Kaner that was talking, Kaner that was laughing, Kaner that was going over to tackle a surprised Crow telling him that he did a great job and that two shutouts was nothing to be ashamed of. It was Kaner that got everyone to start chirping and Shawsy to start talking again, to make everyone feel better despite the streak, despite the loss.

Everyone was in livelier spirits leaving the UC that night. Kaner had somehow convinced a large majority of the guys that they needed to go to a bar and unwind for a minute, and Jonny was sure that if it hadn’t been Pat asking, hadn’t been that night, that loss, if everyone didn’t kind of need someone to lean on, everyone would have gone their separate ways. Some still did, but a lot of guys showed up at the regular bar that the team went to after a hard game.

Jonny should have been worried, should have been cautious about Kaner. He watched him most of the night, watched the drinks, watched the smile, watched to see if there was a breaking point, but no. Kaner was genuinely having a good time, he was talking to everyone, only drinking beer and after two he switched to water.

Back in the locker room, with the press, Jonny had said something about Kaner being a professional, but he didn’t really notice that Kaner had matured in all that time. He didn’t mean he was a different person, but this Kaner that was making the rounds, and chirping the rookies, this Kaner was truly a professional.

After a few hours of jokes and winding down, people started to droop into their seats, it had been a long game after all. Jonny called it, helping guys into cabs and saying goodbye to the ones driving themselves home. At last, after his Captainly duties were over, he looked back and there was Pat.

He always looked back and there was Pat.

Kaner smirked at him, and Jonny just about lost it.

“Let’s go play something I can kick your ass at.” Jonny suggested; his request two-fold. Yes, the best way to unwind after a shit game was play Mario Cart with Kaner and forget that the shit game even happened, but he also wanted Kaner alone. He had questions that he wasn’t sure of, and he wanted to be sure, because he didn’t want to start worrying too much.

Kaner agreed, like he always did, and they left for Jonny’s place.

After settling down and getting into their second game being NHL 10 because they were nothing if not nostalgic assholes, Jonny finally decided it was time to get some answers.

“Are you alright?” He started off, not even looking away from the screen as one of Pat’s players dekeed past his defensemen.

“Hmm?” Kaner mumbled his full concentration on the game.

“After everything, after… You know; are you okay?” Jonny asked again.

“Dude, you’re starting to sound like Sharpy.” Kaner answered, and that wasn’t something Jonny was expecting to come out of his mouth at all. He paused the game and turned to look at Pat who had pulled his knees up so he could rest his chin on them as they talked.

“What do you mean?”

“When we were at the bar he called me, and he didn’t know what to say, he just kept telling me that he would come out if I wanted him to, and I honestly don’t know how that would have helped. I finally got him to see reason, in that Lindy and Benn would probably murder him if flew back to Chicago just for this and he agreed with me.” Kaner flipped his controller in his hands just for something to do.

“He said he would fly out here in the middle of the season?” Jonny stared, not really comprehending how the mind of Patrick Sharp worked.

“Yeah, but I got him calmed down and he started to tell me about their game; Seggy had a great night.” Kaner responded; his words were just a tad wistful, his eyes just a little far off.

Jonny wanted to come back with, ‘You had a great night too, even though we lost, and the streak ended’ he wanted to say something consoling, but instead he asked, “Why aren’t you upset?” which was the question that he really wanted the answer to.

Patrick was quiet for a moment, far more quiet then he had been with the press or at the bar. He took a breath and Jonny knew that everything was about to make sense.

“The other day against the Jets, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I didn’t want to.” Kaner started quietly, he was picking at the hem of his sweatshirt that he borrowed from Jonny because Kaner was constantly cold and Jonny was handing him the sweatshirt before Kaner could ask, because Jonny knew Kaner, knew he would need it.

“I’ve been so nervous lately, so anxious for the last two months. Every time we stepped out onto the ice my heart felt like it was trying to escape my chest. I couldn’t breathe half the time and the other half I had my eyes on the score board like it would change anything.” Kaner buried his head in the too long sleeves of Jonny’s sweatshirt and waited.

Jonny was shocked. He had no idea that Patrick felt like that. Deep down he knew that there was a pressure that came with doing anything great, but the kind of anxiety that Kaner was talking about only came from something you didn’t want to do in the first place.

“Why didn’t you tell someone?” _Why didn’t you tell me?_

Kaner shrugged, lifting his head up so that he could see Jonny. “There’s something to be said for not worrying your teammates, your captain about something like this. Everyone was so happy, so ready to help me out. I was so grateful for it, when it started. This one thing, this streak was about to make all of the stupid shit that I had done in the last year seem like maybe I was worth not trading; maybe it wasn’t a terrible idea to keep me around.”

Jonny started to shake his head; there was no way that Patrick thought these things. There was no way that he didn’t say anything to anyone, to Jonny, there was no way.

“I thought, if I could keep it going, then maybe my name wouldn’t be Mudd anymore.”

Jonny was up faster than he could process that he even wanted to move. He was up and standing in front of Patrick. He reached out and grabbed him by his arms, he didn’t wait for protesting or confused looks, he just reached out and pulled up until he had his arms full of Patrick, until Kaner was there safe, and sure that Jonny wouldn’t let him go, wouldn’t let anyone take him away. Jonny wouldn’t be sure that he could let go until Patrick started to breathe again.

When a shuddery puff of warm air sounded against Jonny’s neck, he finally let go of Kaner and moved him back a little so that he could see his face.

“You are worth it. You are not a terrible idea. I don’t care what happened in the last year. I don’t care what happened in the last two months.” Jonny knew he was being intense, he knew that he could be ruining something, but he didn’t care. He never wanted to hear words like that coming from this man ever again.

“If they even entertained the idea of wanting to trade you, then we would go somewhere else and play hockey, because you’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Jonny said it before he had a chance to analyze what he was actually saying. By the wide eyes and slacked jaw that Kaner was sporting, he hadn’t realized how intense this was going to be either. Instead of freaking out, or pulling away, Kaner just nodded. He dropped his head burying his face in Jonny’s chest.

Jonny took that as a good sign, as a way of knowing that he hadn’t screwed all of this up. That he still had his best friend and that something somewhere had shifted, because now Pat and Jonny both knew that there wasn’t a stopping point with them.

Jonny knew that they needed to take some time and figure this out; that they needed to talk about what all of this meant, but right now, none of that mattered.

Right now, Jonny had Patrick in his arms, the streak was over, they lost the game, but Patrick was breathing again. They both knew there would be more streaks; they both knew there would be more disappointment, but now they also both knew that no matter what they would both be there to deal with it together.

When the streak ended, everyone assumed that Kaner would not react well; no one assumed that he would take it the best of all.     

 

_-fin-_

  

**Author's Note:**

> Thank You for reading, please leave comments or kudos!!


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